Flooring



2106. COMPOSITIONSL' cross Reference Examiner COATING 0R PLASTII.

Jan. 9, 1945. c. r. SIEBS 2,367,146

7 'mofime Filed Jan. 21. 1943 wvE/vroe C. 7. 5/555 M By A M PatentedJan. 9, 1945 UNITED ,STATES PATENT OFFICE FLOORING Glands T. Siebs,Summit, N. 1., assgnor to Westcm Electric Company, Incorporated, NewYork, N. I" a corporation of New York Application January 21, 194:,Serial No. 413,058 r ,2 Claims. (01. 94-22) M This invention relates toflooring and more particularly to a reinforced concrete floor and amethod of forming such a floor.

In erecting buildings on marshlands, it is common practice to drivepiling to support the building walls and columns and to lay a reinforcedconcrete fioor on the soil between the walls, resting on the wall andcolumn footings. Such floors are apt to sag in the center due to groundsettlement. To overcome this trouble, floating reinforced concretefioors can be laid directly on the soil as independent slabs, dowelledone to another but otherwise isolated from wall or column footingsupport. With such a design, maintenance of the original fioor surfaceelevations under ground settlement conditions can be effected by forcingfilling material, such as a mixture of mud and cement, between theunderside of the floor slab and the ground through holes in the slabsuitably spaced. Reinforced concrete pavements and sidewalks and alsoanalogous rigid structures, such as manhole casings, catch basins andthe like, which are usually pile supported, may be similarly maintainedwith respect to the original elevations.

Objects of the invention are the provision of a simple floorconstruction which may be readily levelled and a method of making such afloor.

In accordance with one embodiment of the irivention, a reinforcedconcrete floor is formed by placing slightly tapered, well greasedhardwood posts at spaced intervals between the reinforcing rods of aconcrete floor before pouring the cement and then, after pouring thecement and permitting it to harden, the posts are removed and the holesleft thereby partially filled with sand and finished off at the floorsurface with a colored concrete mixture, whereby the location of theportions of the fioor which may be readily broken through, to permitrelevelling operations by using mud jacks, are clearly indicated.

A better understanding of the invention will be had by reference'to theaccompanying drawing, wherein Fig. 1 shows, in perspective, a fioormanufactured in accordance with the present invention, and

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of a floor made by an alternatemethod of forming a floor.

In the drawing, wherein like reference characters designate the sameparts throughout the several views, there is shown a concrete floorformed in slabs I, 2, 3 and 4. Each of the slabs "is formed of concretepoured to surround longitudinally extending reinforcing rods 5 andtransversely extending reinforcing rods 5. In the process of forming thefloor, the reinforcing rods for each slab may be laid in place and heldin any suitable manner so that the concrete, when .poured, willcompletely surround the reinforcing rods. In addition to the reinforcingrods laid prior to pouring the concrete, separators 1 may be utilized toseparate each slab from every other slab so that after the floor islaid, the separate slabs will not be rigidly connected one to another.

After the reinforcing rods 5 and 6 have been properly placed to form thedesired reinforcing structure of the slabs, a series of slightly taperedposts 8 may be positioned at spaced intervals and in a regular pattern,the posts 8 being set into the ground, as indicated at 9, and beinglocated in the interstices formed by the longitudinally extending andtransversely extending reinforcing rods 5 and 6. Prior to being placedin position, the posts 8 may be suitably treated so that the concreteit, when poured, will not adhere to them. It has been found that byapplying grease to the surface of the posts 8 and by slightly taperingthem from top to bottom, the members may be readily removed from theslabs I, 2, 3 and 4.

After the reinforcing rods 5 and 6 have been placed in position and theposts 8 have been driven into the ground 9 in a predeterminedarrangement between the reinforcing rods and after the separators 1 havebeen properly positioned, the concrete may be poured and permitted toset. Assoon as the concrete has set, the posts 8 may be removed and theholes H left in the concrete slabs may be partially filled with sand, asshown at l2, and then may be capped by a cap l3 of distinctively coloredcement, which may be smoothed off flush with the top" surface of theslabs to indicate the place where the slabs may be readily brokenthrough without striking the reinforcing rods 5 and 6.

In this manner, a concrete floor may be formed which, if any slab tiltsor settles due to the ground 9 settling under the slabs, may be readilyraised by the usual process of. pumping mud under the slab and the timerequired for performing this operation will be appreciably reduced sincethe weak spots in the fioor which are capped with the relatively thinlayer of cement l3 will be apparent and may be readily broken throughwithout the danger of striking a reinforcing rod and also without theformation of ja ged holes in the slabs.

In the alternate embodiment of the invention, as shown in Fig. 2, thereis illustrated a method similar to that described hereinbefore exceptthat after the concrete I0 has partially set and is ready for topfinishing, the plug 8 is pulled from the hole II and the hole is filledwith sand to a point just above the bottom of the concrete In. There isthen placed in the hole ll an open topped metal can 20, which may bepushed down into the hole and filled with concrete, which may be of acolor different from the main body of concrete l0. When such a hole isto be used for directing mud under the slabs, the plug may be picked outand the bottom of the can may be pushed downwardly, if necessary. It isprobable that the bottom of the can will have rusted out by the time itis necessary to relevel the floor and a plug of this type will not tendto adhere to the main body of the concrete.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of forming a reinforced concrete floor on the ground whichcomprises driving removable plugs into the ground between thereinforcing rods of the floor prior to pouring the concrete, pouring theconcrete to completely surround the reinforcing rods and to leave anupper end of each plug uncovered, removing the plugs, and filling theapertures with a distinctively colored and easily removable mixture.

2. The method of forming a reinforced concrete pavement on the groundwhich may be readily relevelled comprising laying reinforcing rods,driving tapered greased members in the ground at spaced intervalsbetween the rods, pouring concrete to cover the rods and leaving theupper ends of the members exposed, permitting the concrete to set,removing the greased members, and filling the holes left by the removalof said members with an easily removable mixture.

CLAUDE T. SIEBS.

